The original post: /r/television by /u/CatGirlNya2000 on 2025-12-27 19:41:08+00:00.

This was an educational channel, basically the fourth kids network after Nick, Disney, and Cartoon Network (and no, channels like Nicktoons and Toon Disney/Disney XD don’t count because those were/are spinoffs of main channels. While Discovery Kids was a spinoff of Discovery Channel, it was a kids spinoff of the Discovery Channel, so it still felt like the fourth network)

Think Nick and Disney, but with a science/history/real world adventure/exploration angle. It was a channel to get kids curious about the world. Some shows were more educational than others (for example, one of its animated offerings, Growing Up Creepie, was usually only educational after each segment (it had two segments per episode) where Creepie would teach about the bug in the segment and there’s occasionally little facts about the bug depending on the segment), but the goal more than anything was to inspire kids to get interested in their world

The network wasn’t concerned about selling toys at all (In fact, they really didn’t want to sell toys), but rather education, while entertaining. Some taught about history like Tutenstein (well, ancient Egypt history), some taught science like Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, and some more just showed what the real world is like

They even had a Discovery Kids lineup on NBC, which is how many of their shows were able to be created, though many of them they didn’t own even if they were made for DK. The network didn’t have a big budget, but the NBC partnership did help

They even had a preschool block called Ready Set Learn (originally on TLC, then on both TLC and Discovery Kids) just like Nick had Nick Jr and Disney had Playhouse Disney. In 2003, the host would be Paz the Penguin and

Eventually they stopped having the block on NBC and TLC stopped having Ready Set Learn, making all of those shows exclusive to Discovery Kids. However, on April 30 2009, the channel was announced to be shutting down soon and on October 10, 2010 at 10AM, the channel shut down forever and most of the shows never aired on TV again, or atleast not in good or decent slots, only at 4AM. The only shows that continued airing in good daytime/evening slots on the channel that replaced Discovery Kids were Tutenstein, Endurance, Strange Days at Blake Holsey High, and Truth or Scare. Everything else was either gone or moved into overnight hours